


Between Husbands And Wives

by ToiletPaperPrincess



Series: Miscellaneous Fics [9]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Married Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 04:31:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToiletPaperPrincess/pseuds/ToiletPaperPrincess
Summary: What Goku wants out of a marriage fits all right with what Chi-Chi wants out of a marriage, she thinks.  But still, it might be nice to cuddle sometimes.





	Between Husbands And Wives

**Author's Note:**

> So for weeks I've had an overwhelming urge to write a fic about Goku and Chi-Chi cuddling but couldn't remember why I'd thought of it. I only remembered right as I finished the last paragraph that my original idea had been "Chi-Chi spars with Goku as a trade-off to make him cuddle with her after" which is a thought I REALLY LIKE but didn't want to shoehorn into this, haha. Maybe I'll write something more like that later.
> 
> I'm not really that familiar with pre-Z Chi-Chi (I only saw the _Dragon Ball_ anime once a few years ago, and she hardly gets any screen time in the manga), so apologies if anything seems inconsistent/OOC.

Cuddling was their compromise.

If Goku had his way, they’d wake up, she would cook, he would eat, he would go out to do martial arts in the woods, she would cook, he would eat, he would go out to do more martial arts in the woods, she would cook, he would eat, they would consummate their marriage and then they would sleep. And that wasn’t even an abridgement; if he had his way, that is literally _all they would do_ , Chi-Chi spending every waking hour making meals and Goku spending every waking hour filling his gut and throwing punches or whatever. No small talk, no leisurely walks, not even a compliment for that cute dress her father had bought for her.

He was a man of simple tastes. She could appreciate that. Her father was the same way, albeit in a more sociable manner. Ask him a question about the history of martial arts and he’d cheerfully ramble on for hours, or dig a relevant artifact out of the attic to illustrate a point (and get distracted with stories about the other artifacts he stumbled across on the way). Those stories brought him so much joy that he had no need to be interested in anything else, except maybe juicy steaks and hugs.

Goku was just the same. All he had room in his heart to care about was fighting, eating, and...well...marital activities, though only when he wasn’t exhausted from the other two, which was rare.

(Chi-Chi had been terrified by the prospect of sex. She’d known it _must_ be morally okay because that was how people made babies, but she was so conditioned to be a Good Girl that she couldn’t possibly ask her father how to do it, and the thought of trying to find a book about it in town nearly killed her with shame. And of course Goku was a Good Boy too, that was why she liked him, so why should he know how to—? And he wasn’t comfortable being touched outside of exchanging blows in combat, so why should he want to—? But once they got past the initial awkwardness of explaining what she thought they were expected to do—and they _had to_ since they _were_ husband and wife and all—Goku had proven startlingly knowledgeable. Something about pictures and videos he had seen at the Turtle Master’s house and never really thought about since they weren’t combat moves, but he definitely remembered the poses. Chi-Chi would have enthusiasticaily murdered the old letch for corrupting a child if it hadn’t taken the burden of knowledge off her in...uh...an embarrassingly pleasant way.)

So. In Goku’s ideal world—and she _did_ really want to make him happy—her role was solely to prepare his food and warm his bed. She didn’t mind that so much. From what little she had read or overheard in town, that was how marriages worked. The husband went out to do whatever he did and the wife took care of him when he came back. Sex was, she supposed, the wife’s reward for her hard work. Th-though of course the husband’s happiness would be reward enough on its own. Making the person you love happy was the purest, most unselfish way to make yourself happy. Anyways, that was how she saw it. Thinking about her father and how he doted on her even in her difficult years when she’d been too mortified to be in the same room as him. How rude she’d been to him sometimes, and still he’d loved her. What an enviably selfless love. A love she could only strive for.

Chi-Chi was a Good Girl. She really wanted to be a good wife.

But she was greedy.

Later it would be about jobs and earning money and setting their children on a path to a safe, I-know- _someone_ -has-to-kill-the-monster-but-it-doesn’t-have-to-be- _you_ sort of future. But she was too dizzy and in love to think more than a week into the future back then. She spent all day (and it really _did_ take all day) slaving over the stove, thinking about holding hands and kissing on the cheek and getting dressed up for a date night in town and even just once hearing him say “I love you.” “Wow, this grub’s fantastic!” blurted through a mouthful of rice just wasn’t close enough, apparently.

Maybe wives weren’t supposed to demand that kind of thing from their husbands. But Chi-Chi was pretty sure most husbands left the house to work on farms or in offices or pretty much _anything_ besides going into the woods to punch a bear, so she felt she had some wiggle room.

Goku tended to be pretty exhausted after lunch, anyways. So it wasn’t too much of a leap to talk him into curling up in a chair, and letting her scoot in beside him. The first few times he complained that it was cramped, and even sneakily tried to push her off. But she had used the tone of voice that he’d learned carried a threat of smaller portions, and he had grumblingly relented. So mostly he fell asleep—snoring as usual—and she just awkwardly leaned against him until he woke up.

But...the rise and fall of his chest beneath her...the warmth of his body, of his breath on her skin...

Chi-Chi didn’t ask for more. She really, honestly, was content.

Later on, it would be different. Maybe seeing her sick and in pain during her pregnancy changed Goku’s perspective, made him aware of how fragile she was, how much he cared for her. She couldn’t know. He never talked about his feelings, if he was even self-aware of how he felt. Maybe Gohan’s birth activated a primal parental instinct that affected how he treated her, as his mate. Maybe forcing him to hold Gohan had given him a taste for cuddling that he’d never had before.

Later on, he would wrap his arms around her when they sat, and rest his head on her shoulder, and sometimes he wouldn’t even fall asleep.

Still no holding hands, no kisses on the cheek. Not really. He’d take it if she gave it, but never did it himself.

He still spent most of his time outdoors, away from her. And what little time he spent indoors was mostly eating and sleeping with occasional sex in between.

They compromised by cuddling.

And Chi-Chi melted into his embrace.

 


End file.
